7 WAYS TO TURN A PROJECT INTO AN ADVENTURE

In this article:

Any loser can boss people around

Anybody can read assignments off of a sheet, tell people what to do and act like they are leading…but that doesn’t make you a leader. You may get by with that in a corporation, with the government or military where people are locked in on a salary and have to put up with that nonsense.

But you aren’t going to get their best efforts.
There’s no chance of that project being a huge success. It may get done, but there will benothing special about it because everyone will just be shuffling through the motions. They will be doing the absolute minimum they can get away with so they can just get it over with.

It takes a real leader to get the best out of people
They treat people the way they want to be treated. Someone has to be in charge but they don’t have to be a bully about getting things done. No one wants to be taken for granted. No one wants to feel belittled. People expect to work but they also expect to be respected as well.

Wonder how to get your team excited about the next project? Turn it into an adventure.

The more projects you can turn into adventures, the more productive and energized your team will be. The idea it get the work done with as many smiles as possible. When you treat assignments like work it seems tedious, but you can take the same project and present it as something big, something important, something that will make a big difference, and something that needs their best efforts.

Do a word association with most people on the word work and see what comes up.

You’ll hear things like chore, boring, annoying, obligation. As long as your team sees a project in this way, you are fighting an uphill battle. People will be fighting you every step of the way.

How to turn your project into an adventure

It takes a little effort to figure that out—but it’s worth it—and the more you do it the better you’ll get.

  1. Start by looking for a fun factor, a change of pace. Doing things differently than you have in the past will automatically freshen things up and get people thinking differently.
  2. Focus on the impact this project will make once it’s completed and why it is important
  3. Keep the attention on the goal you’re working towards rather than the work it will take to get there.
  4. Recognize each step of progress as you move forward, with the emphasis on seeing how quick it can get done.
  5. As much as possible, let individuals have areas that they are totally responsible for and if possible let them chose which ones of those they want to work on.
  6. Create a series of milestones and final deadline, then have a team reward if they reach it…something that gives them a reason to push and something they can enjoy celebrating together.
  7. If you can find a way to create some legitimate internal competition, the fun factor will take another big step forward. When projects become games they take on an adventurous feel and everyone has a lot more fun working on it.

It takes real Leadership to get people excited about a project and achieve something special!